Sunday, August 5, 2012

Ge’ullah and tefillah

The first half of Masekhet Berakhot covers two main topics, the Shema with its blessings and the Amidah. One subject arises multiple times as a glue that joins the two topics together (five times, to be exact, according to the Bar Ilan Responsa Project: on 4b, 9b, 10b, 26a, and 30a). This is the requirement to be somekh ge’ullah li-tfillah—that we connect the redemption at the end of the Shema’s blessings, “ge’ullah,” to the start of the Amidah, “tefillah.” The Halakhah gives this requirement high priority.

What is the reason for semikhat ge’ullah li-tfillah? And why is it so important?

The original source

The idea of semikhat ge’ullah li-tfillah first appears in Berakhot 4b:

For R. Johanan says: Who inherits the world to come? The one who follows the Ge'ullah immediately with the evening Tefillah. R. Joshua b. Levi says: The Tefilloth were arranged to be said in the middle.

In other words, they disagree regarding Arvit—R’ Yohanan says we connect the last blessing of Shema with the Amidah as at Shaharit, which is what we do today. R’ Yehoshua ben Levi says we say the Shema with blessings after the Amidah, so that the day begins and ends with Shema, and the Amidah prayers are sandwiched in the middle.

The Gemara goes on to suggest technical reasons for why they might disagree regarding Arvit. But the Gemara does not address the underlying motivation for connecting ge'ulah and tefillah.

Possible reasons

In an article on VBM, R' Moshe Taragin cites three explanations for the concept of semikhat ge’ullah li-tfillah found among the Rishonim. The first is in Rashi’s comment here, quoting the Yerushalmi:

To paraphrase, the redemption in Egypt made us God’s slaves, and prayer is the service we owe Him. Praying immediately shows our appreciation for the redemption. Prayer also shows our trust in God, which comes from redemption.

R’ Taragin notes that Rashi and R’ Yonah take opposing angles. The former sees ge’ullah as enhancing tefillah, while the latter sees tefillah as enhancing ge’ullah.

This approach says that semikhat ge’ullah li-tfillah is important because it is such a minor detail, enacted by the sages. Someone who is so careful with all the other laws that he is even careful with this law is surely deserving of reward.

I note that this last approach works especially well for the words of R’ Yohanan, who mentioned semikhat ge’ullah li-tfillah specifically at Arvit, which is merely reshut (“optional,” as discussed in the preceding passage on Berakhot 4b). In fact, Tosafot here (d”h de-amar) see a need to reconcile R’ Yohanan’s opinion with the conclusion that Arvit is reshut—clearly, like Rashi, they see the emphasis in semikhat ge’ullah li-tfillah as being on the tefillah. And likewise, the student of R’ Yonah admits that his explanation for R’ Yohanan doesn’t apply to Arvit in particular, but rather applies all the more so to Shaharit. But R’ Yohanan made his statement in a mahloket contrasting Arvit and Shaharit.

Arvit vs. Shaharit

The differences between the two prayers is a great test case to see how far we go with the rule of semikhat ge’ullah li-tfillah. It's surprisingly strict at Shaharit and pretty lenient at Arvit.

At Shaharit, we avoid saying “amen” after the blessing ga’al Yisrael so as to not interupt the connection to the Amidah. An individual can’t even stop at that point to respond to kaddish or kedushah. These laws are found in Orah Hayyim 66:7–8.

At Arvit, we can make relevant announcements right before the Amidah, such as for ya’aleh ve-yavo on Rosh Hodesh. We also have kaddish in the middle, and Ashkenazim in hutz la-aretz say the eighteen verses of Barukh Hashem le-olam. If you walk into shul right when the minyan begins the Amidah, you should say the Amidah with the minyan and say the Shema with blessings later, with no semikhat ge’ullah li-tfillah at all. These laws are found in Orah Hayyim 236, pasted below if you're interested:

I would say that these differences show that Rashi’s view (that semikhat ge’ullah li-tfillah is for the tefillah) won the day, since the lesser tefillah requires semikhah more weakly. On the other hand, R’ Taragin writes that the differences fit R’ Yonah’s position (that semikhat ge’ullah li-tfillah is for the ge’ullah), since the ge’ullah in Egypt was less significant at night (see the continuation on Berakhot 4b). I guess Arvit is weaker on both fronts, ge’ullah and tefillah.

By the way, never having to say Barukh Hashem le-olam again at Arvit is one of the many things I’m looking forward to about making aliyah.